… understanding always involves the notion of composition. This notion can enter in one of two ways. If the thing understood be composite, the understanding of it can be in reference to its factors, and to their ways of interweaving so as to form that total thing. This mode of comprehension makes evident why the thing is what it is. The second mode of understanding is to treat the thing as a unity, whether or not it is capable of analysis, and to obtain evidence as to its capacity for affecting its environment. The first mode may be called the internal understanding, and the second mode is the external understanding. … The two modes are reciprocal; either presupposes the other. The first mode conceives the thing as an outcome, the second mode conceives it as a causal factor. … It is true that nothing is finally understood until its reference to process has been made evident. (pp. 45–6)

Process and individuality require each other. In separation all meaning evaporates. The form of process … derives its character from the individuals involved, and the characters of the individuals can only be understood in terms of the process in which they are implicated. (p. 97)

The whole understanding of the world consists in the analysis of process in terms of the identities and diversities of the individuals involved. (p. 98)